The Bed You Make: An Urban Hood Drama

by Tamicka Higgins

  “Sparkle, you can’t live here much longer,” Regina said, flatly. She quickly looked away and down at the floor as Sparkle turned and looked back.

  Sparkle wasn’t sure if she’d heard right, so she stopped on the third step and looked back at her mother. “What, Mama?” she asked. “What did you say?”

  “Yup,” Regina said. “That’s what I said. You can’t live here much longer. Sparkle, listen to me. I agreed to let you move back in with me because you have little Isaac and whatnot, but you’re not really trying to use this to pull yourself up. All you’re doing is wasting time, so it’s obviously not working.”

  “Are you for real?” Sparkle asked. “You know that winter is comin’ and stuff and you really gon’ put your daughter and grandson out on the street like that? I mean, damn, Mama. That’s cold.”

  “Yeah, well,” Regina said, fed up. “Life is cold and I’m trying to make sure that you’ll be prepared for it. And living off of someone for free that won’t be on this earth forever isn’t going to get there. You can’t live here much longer, Sparkle. I love you, but that’s just how it is. You have to learn to do for yourself and try to make choices that won’t wind you up in an even worse situation than you’re already in. I told you about getting pregnant too young, and that you need to be really selective with who you get pregnant by. I wanted you to be married and have a house before you did all that. You know how hard it was for me and your father, sometimes, to raise you when we had you at such a young age. You are really turning out to be a disappointment.”

  Sparkle opened her mouth to speak, but she could look into her mother’s eyes and see that she was a woman who truly hadn’t changed her ways. This was the end of the road for her. Sparkle appreciated her mother’s help with raising her son, but there were just certain insults that she would never accept. “Okay, Mama,” Sparkle said then rushed up the stairs. “I’ll do you one even better. I’ll get the fuck up on outta here now!”

  “Sparkle!” Regina said, grabbing the stairwell. “Sparkle! Stop! You don’t have to leave in the middle of the night like this with your child and stuff. I’m just sayin’ that you’ve gotten a little too comfortable here and it’s time for you to stand on your own and really do something for yourself.”

  “I agree, I agree!” Sparkle yelled from the top of the steps. “And that’s why I’m ‘bout to get Isaac up and get him outta here and get him to somewhere where he is really wanted.”

  Regina looked upstairs with eyes of panic. She sincerely hoped that her daughter wasn’t about to wake up her four-year-old son, in the middle of the night, and leave. She rushed up the steps and looked into one of her spare bedrooms—the bedroom she’d set up for Isaac months ago when Sparkle approached her about moving back in, temporarily.

  Sparkle turned on the bedroom light then went and shook Isaac’s shoulder. “Wake up, baby,” she said. “Wake up. You gotta get up and pack your clothes so we can go.”

  Sparkle watched as her chubby, chocolate son reluctantly woke up out of his sleep. Several questions slipped out of his mouth as the confusion overcame him. It wasn’t long before Sparkle had pulled Isaac’s largest suitcase out of the closet and started throwing his clothes inside. Regina walked up behind her, saying she didn’t have to do all this. “Naw, Mama,” Sparkle said, nudging her mother back with her arm. “Naw. You said you tired of us bein’ here and that you don’t want to do this and that because you don’t think that I’m try’na better myself, then maybe you’re right. Maybe it is time for me to get the hell up on outta here and go live somewhere where I can breathe and whatnot without havin’ to come home and get talked to like I’m some little girl. I’m outta here.”

  “Isaac, baby,” Regina said, rushing over to the bed. “Baby, you’re mama ain’t serious. She just playin’. Get back in the bed and get your rest, baby.”

  “Mama, don’t do that,” Sparkle snapped, turning around. “I am his mother and I told him to get up so we can get the hell on up outta here.”

  Sparkle argued back and forth with her mother for the next several minutes. After she packed Isaac’s clothes, stuffing them into the suitcase, she rushed into the room where she stayed—a room that had been an office before she moved back in.

  “Sparkle, you’re not thinking clearly!” Regina yelled when she saw Sparkle pulling sleepy Isaac down the steps. “Sparkle, don’t take that boy out into the night like this when you know he need to be asleep. At least wait until tomorrow or something.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Sparkle said, rolling her eyes. “But you couldn’t wait till tomorrow to look me in my eyes and tell me that I’m nothin’ but a fuckup. Yeah, Mama. I know, I know. This is what you wanted, so I don’t know why you’re complaining.”

  “Mommy, where are we going?” Isaac asked.

  Sparkle looked into her son’s eyes and said, “I don’t know just yet. But we not gon’ be here no more.”

  Sparkle pulled her mother’s front door open and rushed out into the wind. “Sparkle!” Regina called from the door. “Sparkle! Come back! You don’t have to do all this like this. You’re actin’ crazy.”

  Keeping her eyes forward while she pulled Isaac ahead, Sparkle tossed their two suitcases into the backseat and hopped behind the wheel. At this point, her mother had slipped her feet into some slippers and rushed down across her front yard. Sparkle ignored her mother calling her name as she backed out of the driveway and onto the street. She looked into her mother’s eyes one last time before pulling off.

  Sparkle stared blankly ahead as she thought of her options. She only had a thousand dollars to her name, so her options were rather limited. She had a half-sister, on her father’s side, who lived in a three-bedroom house. However, at this time of night, the chance that she’d be able to take in a single mother with a child without any notice was slim. Sparkle soon decided that her best option would be rolling over by the interstate and checking into one of the cheap motels she’d always driven by in the middle of the night herself on her way back from the club.

  Sparkle stuck with her plan and went to a fifty-dollar-a-night motel. Once she’d checked into the room, and gotten the suitcases inside, she finally had a chance to breathe and think about what she’d do long term. She’d gotten deep into thought in the bathroom, washing the make-up off of her face, when she realized she needed to say something to Isaac. Her little boy had asked what was going on with his mother on the way over to the motel, but Sparkle had been too heated to respond without coming across as a crazy black chick.

  Sparkle walked back out into the motel room and sat next to her son, who looked sad as he sat on the edge of the bed. Again, he asked what was going on. And Sparkle came up with her very best reason, saying that there had been a big discussion between she and Grandma and they had to leave the house. Sparkle then got Isaac into the bed. Once he’d fallen asleep, she grabbed her phone and hid away in the bathroom.

  “Fuck,” Sparkle said, leaning against the sink. “What I’mma do?”

  Sparkle scrolled through her contacts, knocking people off her mental list of who might be in a position to help her. Then she came to a couple of guys who moved weight out in the street. They both had a thing for her and practically adored her plump, but oh-so-shapely body. Then she thought about Isaac. If she didn’t have a child, she could easily sweet talk one of those guys and get a little something going for herself until she figured out how she’d get out of her situation.

  About twenty minutes into her thinking session in the bathroom of the substandard motel, she came across John’s name. At first she grinned, not because she and John had a bad relationship or anything like that, but rather because she swore up and down that she would take care of Isaac without John when he’d said some hurtful things about a year or so again. However, as their situation was rather grave, Sparkle realized that she was going to have to swallow her pride, even if it was only for the sake of little Isaac.

  Reluctantly, Sparkle pressed John’s name and listened to the phon
e ring. A part of her hoped that he wouldn’t be awake to answer because she didn’t want to have the conversation she already knew was coming.

  “Hello?” John answered, sounding as if he’d been woken up out of his sleep.

  “Yeah, this is Sparkle,” Sparkle said.

  “I know,” John said. “Wassup? What’s goin’ on? What time is it?”

  “It’s like almost four o’clock or somethin’ like that,” Sparkle said. “Anyway, my bad for callin’ you like this and wakin’ you up, but I got a problem.”

  “What?” John asked. “Is everything okay with Isaac?”

  “Yeah, everything is okay with Isaac, John,” Sparkle said. “But, actually, the reason I was callin’ is because we gon’ need somewhere to stay.”

  “What you mean you gon’ need somewhere to stay?” John asked. “I thought you was supposed to be stayin’ with your mama or some shit like that.”

  “Yeah, well,” Sparkle said. “My mama was all up in my face when I got home just a little bit ago and she started talkin’ that shit about how she don’t want me to live there much longer and stuff. So, I got Isaac up and we packed our stuff. Now we in this hotel over by the highway…you know, where them old factories were that burned down like a year or two ago.”

  “Oh God,” John said. “So, what you gon’ do? I mean, you can’t stay in that motel forever.

  “I know I can’t, John,” Sparkle said. “I ain’t got the money to be doin’ this shit for too long. Shit, I was thinkin’ that me and Isaac could come stay with you for a while until one of these jobs that I put in for call me back or somethin’.”

  “Come and stay with me?” John asked, clearly shocked. “Is you fuckin’ serious, Sparkle? You messed up the situation with your mother and now you wanna come and stay with me?”

  “Damn, John,” Sparkle said. “I don’t know what else you wanted me to do. She was really standin’ there, lookin’ me dead in my face and basically told me that I was nothin’ and not try’na do nothin’ with myself.”

  “Yeah, but that was a good situation for your, Sparkle,” John said. “You sure you can’t just patch shit up with your mama and go back and stay with her?”

  Sparkle rubbed her forehead. She wasn’t the least bit surprised that John wasn’t exactly enthused with the idea of she and Isaac coming to stay with him out of the blue. “John, I don’t wanna go back there,” she said. “I don’t know what you don’t understand about that. I don’t wanna go back to some place where we’re clearly not really wanted.”

  John groaned. “Okay, okay,” he said. “I mean, you a hour or whatever away, so how you wanna do this? Y’all can come stay with me, or, if you want, Isaac can come and stay with me while you get your shit together.”

  “I’m not livin’ somewhere without my son,” Sparkle said. “That’s all I can really say on that, John. I mean, it is what it is. I know you hate my guts and stuff, but I called the father of my child lookin’ for help.”

  “I don’t hate your guts, Sparkle,” John said. “You remember what happened with our relationship. You was the one fuckin’ around with otha niggas and shit, so don’t say that I hate your guts or no shit like that when you know that shit ain’t true.”

  Sparkle looked down, feeling kind of ashamed. The one thing she’d never told her mother was how she and John had fallen out. Like most women, Regina had simply assumed that the man messed up without even questioning it. However, the truth of the matter was that John had been deeply in love with Sparkle and even wanted to build a little life with her, even if they were just two young kids barely out of high school at the time. Sparkle, on the other hand, was too busy trying to be in the streets and be at every single party she could get invited to. One thing led to another and she wound up messing with this one guy who could put it down so good in the bedroom. It wasn’t long after that John had noticed something was up and figured out the real deal.

  “Okay, okay,” Sparkle said quickly, not wanting John to bring up the past. Anytime he did, it didn’t exactly put her in a favorable light. “So, what you sayin’? When can we come and stay there?”

  “When you wanna drive down?” John asked. “Shit, I’m up now if you wanna get Isaac in the car and head down. I can give you whatever gas money you spent when you get here.”

  A huge wave of gratitude came over Sparkle. At the beginning of the car ride, she feared she’d have to go crawling back to her mother with her tail between her legs. What a big relief it was to hear that John was cool with she and Isaac coming to stay there.

  “Okay, John,” Sparkle said. “We’ll be there in like a hour and half or somethin’. I’mma stop and get Isaac some kind of snacks or somethin’ and we can be on the way.”

  “Okay,” John said. “I’mma get up and put some clothes on and stuff and be waitin’ on y’all. Let me know when you’re comin’ into the city so I can be lookin’ out for y’all. Be careful out there.”

  “Okay,” Sparkle said. She smiled, loving that she could hear the tone of concern in John’s voice. “We on our way.”

  Within thirty minutes, Sparkle had gotten Isaac and their suitcases back into the car. She turned in the motel room key and headed to Kroger to get some snacks. Once they’d gotten onto the interstate, she knew that her life would be changing. As she looked back at the Lexington, Kentucky skyline, which slowly faded in the distance, she made a promise to herself that she would never go back to living with her mother again. The situation was just too humiliating for her to go through as a grown woman.

  CHAPTER 4

  When Race woke up the morning after Imani had come over, he groaned. The sun had gotten up early it seemed and was extra bright. Rays of warm light jumped into the bedroom, reaching across his bed and shining across the white chick laying at his side. He looked at her and chuckled, thinking about how he’d made her deep throat him before they had fallen asleep last night. Seeing her eyes water as her sweaty blonde hair stuck to her head had been absolutely intoxicating.

  After Race had gotten up to use the bathroom, he saw that his morning erection was just not going down. Usually, this would bring about the kind of situation where he’d wake Imani up out of her sleep and pound her as if there was no tomorrow. However, all of that was the past now. After finding Imani in the bedroom with John, he’d changed all the sheets and made sure to dick the white chick down so hard that her juices would forever lace the bed.

  “Wake up,” Race said, slapping the white chick’s ass. “Wake up!”

  “Huh? What?” the white chick asked. “What’s goin’ on?” She looked around the room, wondering if the chick from last night had come back for vengeance. “What the hell?”

  Race walked around to the other side of the bed and pushed his morning erection toward the white chick’s face. “Come on,” he said, loving how slutty she was. The two had met at a bar and she’d made it very clear she liked black guys…and why. “My dick hard. Wake up and suck on a nigga’s dick before I gotta get moving.”

  The white chick smiled as she lifted her head up and took Race’s manhood into her mouth. With his hands on his hips, he smiled and looked down as the chick wrapped her lips around his above-average girth. She moaned and slashed her tongue about on his shaft, causing him to go crazy.

  “Yeah, there you go,” Race said. He thought about last night and how he’d been chilling and getting head when Imani came walking through the door. Despite how all of it may have looked at the time, Race knew exactly what kind of message he’d sent to Imani. He wanted to make sure she knew that she was not irreplaceable. The only thing he regretted was not telling Imani that this white chick’s head game was off the chains.

  Within five minutes or so, Race couldn’t take standing anymore. He laid down on the bed, the way he’d always done with Imani in the mornings, and had the girl suck his dick while his head was propped up on the stack of pillows.

  Just as he’d gotten comfortable, he got a call from Drew.

  “Nigga, what the fuck
is up with you?” Drew asked.

  Race smiled as he held the phone up to the side of his face. He looked down at the white chick. Her hair flew everywhere as she gobbled down his dick. “Nigga, nothin’,” he answered. “Gettin’ this dick sucked on by this white chick right now. Damn, nigga. Them white girls love to suck on dick.”

  The white chick pulled her head up and squinted at Race. Race simply smiled and pushed her head back down. “Why, wassup?” Race asked.

  “Nigga, you told me you was gon’ hit a nigga up in the mornin’ so I could stop through and smoke and we could talk about your party and shit,” Drew explained. “Shit, it’s like ten o’clock and shit and you still ain’t hit me up. You know I gotta be at work at like one.”

  “Damn, I forgot,” Race said. “Come on right now then nigga. Come on. We can smoke and maybe go get something to eat or somethin’. I’m bout to bust this nutt anyway.”

  Drew chuckled. “Okay, nigga,” he said. “I’m on the way.”

  Race hung up and looked down at the white girl. She still wouldn’t quit. If she wanted, she could be a porn star. She wasn’t the prettiest in the face, but her body was on point and she loved to suck dick. The only downside, at least when it came to Race’s point of view, was that she’d told him she didn’t like cum in her mouth. Race chuckled, feeling the pressure in his shaft as his balls tighten up. Normally, he’d moan at this point, but he wanted to surprise the chick.

  A minute or so later, Race couldn’t hold back anymore. Without warning, he grabbed the white girl’s head and pushed her head all the way down until her lips pressed into his shaft. While he was average length in the dick-size department, he was still long enough to push into the chick’s throat and cause her to gag. However, it was too late. Once he felt himself exploding in her mouth, he let out a deep groan and looked up at the ceiling. The sound of the chick choking on his manhood was like pure heaven—something he’d want to hear every day.